The Winklevoss Twins Lost $16 Million on Bitcoin Yesterday

Today, the New York Times reported that the Winklevoss twins, famous for getting screwed over by Mark Zuckerberg over the inception of Facebook, have been quietly investing in Bitcoin. According to the piece, the Winklevii have accumulated about 1 percent of all Bitcoins in existence.

The first thing I thought of: How much did those guys lose yesterday? As we previously reported, Bitcoin went all the way up to $266 … before dropping 50 percent to about $120. Major Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox actually halted trading until 10 p.m. EST today to let the market relax after yesterday’s massive selloff. Here’s how much the Winklevoss twins lost yesterday in the extremely volatile Bitcoin market.

Share this article!

First, we had to figure out how many Bitcoins were in existence, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. Luckily, a site called Blockchain, tracks and monitors the number of Bitcoins in circulation. According to Blockchain, there are currently 11,015,450 bitcoins in circulation at this moment.

Next, we calculated 1 percent of that figure (obviously) and came up with 110,154.5, the number of bitcoins the Winklevoss twins own.

We multiplied that figure by 266, since that’s what Bitcoin was valued before it fell yesterday. We came up with $29,301,097, which is how much the Winklevosses owned in bitcoins when the virtual currency hit its all-time high.

Then, we multiplied the number of bitcoins owned by the brothers by 120, the price that Bitcoins fell to yesterday. We came up with $13,218,480.

As you can see, the Winklevoss twins lost a ton of money yesterday, approximately $16,082,617. So, a pretty difficult day for the Winklevoss twins. It should be noted that the New York Times article said that the twins purchased Bitcoin back when the virtual currency was worth single dollars, so they’ve already made a ton of money off of Bitcoins.